Bluesfest has begun

[bradm]

My city councillor is a douchebag

No surprises' date=' I wrote her a letter[/quote']

What's her email addy?

The full set of councillors, with their e-mail addresses, can be found at:

http://www.ottawa.ca/city_hall/mayor_council/councillors/index_en.html

Aloha,

Brad

Edited July 7, 2008 by Guest

[AD]

my letter to Diane Holmes

Councillor,

I read an article in the Citizen ("Bluesfest at risk of being turned down, councillor warns") where the author talked about you looking into the volume levels at Bluesfest, as well as your efforts to document decibel levels and tell constituents how to properly complain.

As a resident of your ward, I sincerely hope you find a better, more productive and supportive way to spend your time. The sound from Bluesfest occurs for just 75 hours of the year (not even 1% of the year), yet there are countless other issues that have real impacts on the lives of Centretown and Ottawa residents, year-round.

Instead of travelling around with bylaw services trying to put a damper on people's fun, why don't you take in the Bluesfest as a spectator or even as a paying customer, and see people actually enjoying themselves. It would be great to see you champion Bluesfest and go even further to tell your fellow Councillors about this mysterious thing called "The Arts" that so few of you support. With this education maybe city council can go further and properly support the performing arts and music in Ottawa.

Also, I wonder if you are aware of how many customers, volunteers, organizers, workers and performers at Bluesfest are residents of your ward.

[Davey Boy 2.0]

bravo AD

[ollie]

Primus setlist. Please post corrections.

Here Come the Bastards

Groundhog Day

Mr. Know-it-all

Those Damn Blue Collared Tweakers

Jerry Was a Race Car Driver

My Name Is Mud

John the Fisherman

American Life

Southbound Pachyderm

Harold of the Rocks

[Hal Johnson]

Nice, thanks Ollie.

Jerry, John, Groundhog day and Mr Know-it-all? Not too shabby... :thumbup:

[Velvet]

Here's mine to Diane.Holmes@ottawa.ca :

Councillor Holmes,

I understand you are looking into access noise coming from Lebreton Flats during Bluesfest. According to the article in the Citizen 26 people complained about the noise on Thursday night while approximately 25,000 paid to subject themselves to it. The belly-achers make up about .1% of that tally, and I am impressed that you take the opinions of so few so seriously. Of course only two of the 26 complaints found decibels over accepted levels, lowering the figure to .01%.

One might argue that not everyone with a complaint actually picked up the phone, but one could also say that certainly most people happy with the Bluesfest the way it is didn't call in either.

Ms. Holmes, if you are so concerned about such a small faction of people with a complaint, then I urge you to take my complaint very seriously: busy yourself with things people actually are concerned about and leave the best festival this city offers alone. I wonder if you'll get 26 letters of complaint today. Actually, please let me know how many write to complain about your stance on this issue, I'd be very curious to know.

Also, you needn't tell me how to complain about my local politician.

[Kanada Kev]

AD and Velvet,

please post any response you get from that waste of tax payers' money. Would love to hear what the deal is. Shit, i'm sure you could find 26 people to complain about something else and see if she quickly jumps to your rescue too

[AD]

I was behind the Rogers stage after the Primus set and saw Les hanging out. Then I saw these two small kids and their dad. The one kid looks at me and says "I got a drumstick!" while the other kid hands me a piece of paper "They all autographed the setlist for me!"

They couldn't have been more than 6 years old. Pretty cool.

So here's a link to the ebay auction for the setlist

Just kidding. I gave it back.

[AWeeJig]

Primus was off the hook! I forgot how good that band was live. It's been way too long.

[Davey Boy 2.0]

Haha, nice use of the spoiler feature, AD

Great letter Velvet

[Velvet]

Whoa! How did you do that AD?

[AD]

magic fingers!

[Kanada Kev]

AD's secret

I ain't telling

[phorbesie]

what are folks seeing tonight?

i guess i am going to try

creaking tree

that 1 guy

then try to catch a bit of federico aubele and betty lavette

then onto JT

[bONES]

great letters AD & velvet :thumbup:

[thomson]

creaking tree

that 1 guy

then try to catch a bit of federico aubele and betty lavette

then onto JT

I'll be pretty well mirroring that tonight. I haven't seen Creaking Tree since 2003. Loved them then and am looking forward to starting my night there.

So far Les Claypool/Primus has been my overall highlight. I've never heard a bass be so percusive. Zappa Plays Zappa was a surprise hit for me seeing as I'd never gotten into Zappa prior to Saturday, and it was a pleasure to final hear WSP. At this point I'm most looking forward to Wednesdy's Manx and Breit set having never seen them play together.

[ollie]

Anyone know what drew security's attention during the mid-way point of the Panic show? Three of them saw something and leaped over the barrier on the left side, facing the stage. They were back at their posts a few minutes later.

[AD]

Probably the massive crowd at the Roots stage.

[phorbesie]

any food vendor recs? i'm craving pad thai but theirs might be gross...lol

[bradm]

Go and see BETTY LAVETTE!!

I caught most of her set, and it was great. Hard-hitting soul, with a scorching band (that did a couple of numbers withour her at the start of the set). She even did a Willie Nelson tune, sitting down on the stage, and later on, she actually put the mic aside and sang to us a capella, and could clearly be heard over the really annoying bleed from the River Stage (Tony D's Power Hour or something); it was as if she was challenging the big bad stage sound coming from over there using just her unamplified voice, and holding her own while she did it. :thumbup:

I also checked out Creaking Tree String Quartet, and it didn't sound that good to me. They had a drummer with them, and the guitar player and mandolin player both had solid-body electric instruments, dialed in with a slightly overdriven rock'n'roll tone. The playing wasn't that bad, but neither the tone nor the music really worked for me.

That 1 Guy in the theatre (the first show I've seen there, ever) was a lot of fun. He puts on a real performance, with watching his antics making up a good chunk of the enjoyment of seeing him perform.

Aloha,

Brad

[phorbesie]

that 1 guy was great! crazy stuff. he played a saw, a cowboy boot and i have no idea what that huge contraption was. for the last song he hooked an electrolux up to it which blew smoke out of the top of it.

betty lavette was great...what brad said.

caught a bit of james taylor but it was soooo mellow and the wind was blowing the sound away from us. so we walked over to power hour with tony d and that was the highlight of the night for sure! they were SMOKIN. the first few tunes that we saw featured becky abbott on vocals, looked and sounded tasty, she had an amazing voice. then the lady guitarist (suzy v...? help me) sang a tune which was also great. then some british guitarists came out and rocked. it was great. blues at bluesfest, such a treat

wandered back over to JT which was sounding much better and enjoyed some hits.

i realized that a great view of the main stage for a packed show is actually outside on the street, clear view of the stage.

tonight was just what i needed and way better than i expected all around!

[Kanada Kev]

thanks for the reviews. sounds like you got a really good set.

[Velvet]

That was Suzie Vinnick, and she was playing bass. And yes, she was great! I'd already forgotten the British dudes. The main guy popped the low E string on his guitar on his first swipe at the strings.

[phorbesie]

the lead british dude was jon amor (see bluesfest bios for yesterday)

oh i forgot about the bluegrass at the black sheep stage too. they were fun.

Edited July 8, 2008 by Guest

[killatokes]

Here's mine to Diane.Holmes@ottawa.ca :

Councillor Holmes,

I understand you are looking into access noise coming from Lebreton Flats during Bluesfest. According to the article in the Citizen 26 people complained about the noise on Thursday night while approximately 25,000 paid to subject themselves to it. The belly-achers make up about .1% of that tally, and I am impressed that you take the opinions of so few so seriously. Of course only two of the 26 complaints found decibels over accepted levels, lowering the figure to .01%.

One might argue that not everyone with a complaint actually picked up the phone, but one could also say that certainly most people happy with the Bluesfest the way it is didn't call in either.

Ms. Holmes, if you are so concerned about such a small faction of people with a complaint, then I urge you to take my complaint very seriously: busy yourself with things people actually are concerned about and leave the best festival this city offers alone. I wonder if you'll get 26 letters of complaint today. Actually, please let me know how many write to complain about your stance on this issue, I'd be very curious to know.

Also, you needn't tell me how to complain about my local politician.

i wonder what percentage of her constituents you could get to complain about lawnchairs at Bluesfest?

maybe you've found the solution to the problem. if she gets this aggro over such a small amount of complainers, maybe she'd go robo-councilor if you bring her say 50 or a 100 complaints about the chairs. maybe its her version of proportional representation.